Broken and Reforged
by An4rchicpe4ce
Summary: Quinn's personal story. A one-shot, crafted between lessons. Enjoy, and R&R!


The sun glinted off the blue and gold tiles from afar. From this particular vantage point, a clearing just above a treacherous cliff, the many towers of Demacia, with their flags flying high, looked as insignificant as a children's toy castle. Her eyes against the sun, Quinn squinted in the glaring light as she looked at the outline of the Royal Palace amongst the indiscernible hues of blue, white, and gold.

Her eyeballs slowly panned downwards. Just beyond the fortified city lay the outskirts, where small settlements sprung around bends in the river. The suburbs were as busy as the grand town shadowing it, bustling with human life. From her view, the humans were about as tiny as ants, walking along well-trodden pathways. Sometimes, the ants would stop and converse with each other before moving on to their destination.

Beyond the suburbs, a lush, dense field of green surrounded the road to Demacia. Here, birds squawked loudly, beasts roamed the forest, and the wind was refreshingly cool. Every inch of her view below was obscured by what seemed to be broccolis. The trees ended sharply at the foot of the jagged cliff she stood on. From her point, it was a ragged way up and down. Several hundred years of extreme climate had left the rocks worn and weathered. Good for rock climbing, but one misplaced foot and it would be a one-way trip.

She put a hand above her eyes, shielding them from the sunlight, as she focused on the building in the distance, with its many domes and tall, spiraling towers. She smiled gently.

"One day, we will be there, you know," a voice behind her said. Like Quinn, the figure behind her also had sandy-blond hair and two pale cheeks. Quinn often liked to tease him because of his hair, despite him being the elder one. "Any longer, and you'll be a girl!" She giggled, and her brother laughed along with her.

A breeze picked up, sending Quinn's tresses straight into Jean's face. Jean swiped it aside.

"Honestly, Q, you should really learn how to braid up your hair," he said with a hint of amusement underneath his long fringe. "They won't stand that at the Academy."

"Oh, stop being so serious!" Quinn whined. They both broke into laughter.

Both of them sat, side by side, along the edge of the cliff. Quinn leaned her head on his shoulders, letting the cool wind permeate every pore on her face. She closed her eyes in contentment. When she opened them, she looked into her brother's eyes, and found that those blue eyes were staring into her own. Her brother drew back his hand, and so did she. High-fiving, they cheered.

"To the future Knights of Demacia!" They raised their hands in unison, one clutching a sword, the other a shield. They crossed their sword arms in an 'X', their shields bumping together. A secret handshake, of sorts.

All of a sudden, Quinn was struck by a wave of insecurity. What if… what if they weren't good enough? Sure, they were great at hunting and surviving out in the wild, but… what if it wasn't enough? She and her brother lived to see themselves knighted. If they didn't become part of the elite force … what would her parents say? What would she do? What would they do? Tears welled in her eyes, and she blinked them back. So much banked on the acceptance. If they weren't accepted, then … it would truly be the end of her.

Her brother, reading the emotions on her face, waved a palm in front of it. "Snap out of it, Q! Don't torture yourself with the what-ifs. They ain't gonna happen! Not with me here," he said, smacking his own chest.

"Quinn?"

She dug her calves into the cliff, rubbing them over the slippery moss. She grabbed his hands tightly with her own. "Promise?" There were so many unspoken burning questions that her glance conveyed, but her brother quelled them all with his gruff gentleness. The gentle giant. He ran a palm over Quinn's forehead, brushing back her fringe and tucking it behind her left ear.

"Yes," he whispered in her ear. "I promise."

* * *

"Oh god, J! Stop being such a chicken! Come on!" Quinn urged her reluctant brother forward. Her sparkling, adventurous eyes were in sharp contrast with the green patches that ran all over her body. The green patches swayed slowly, reflecting the light passing through the canopy of leaves above.

"Quinn, wait up!" Jean's lumbering body struggled to catch up with his younger sister. Although at only 15 years of age, Jean was already the size of a fully-grown adult. Quinn, being a year younger, used her lean body as an advantage, passing through a narrow crevice with millimeters to spare. Poor Jean, she thought as she smirked in delight. He would have to climb above the crevice to pass through it.

Arriving at a small clearing in the middle of the dense forest, Quinn panted, waiting for Jean. Suddenly, there was a _whoosh_ and a rush of air behind her, and she was pinned to the floor, hands behind her back. Her rationality barely overrode her fear, and she had to bite down on her tongue to prevent herself from screaming. On top of her, she heard a low chuckle. Chuckle?

She turned her head,

"J! Get _off_ me!" She heaved violently, knowing that it would not do a bit of good. For several minutes, they tussled on the crunchy carpet floor before breaking up, panting as if they had ran a mile. Quinn's chest heaved as she sucked in deep breaths, staring up at the azure sky in front of her. Apart from a few stray wisps, the sky was cloudless. It was a beautiful day.

"So," Quinn started once she caught her breath, "where do we go from here, _knight_?" Her eyes taunted him. Jean picked up a branch from the floor and held it like a sword

"There, my dear _damsel in distress,_" he said, flourishing the stick as if it were a real sword, pointing at one of the many paths through the clearing.

Quinn took a hard look at it. The path was covered in moss. Vines hung low between tree branches. Deeper in, ferns obscured the end of the path. Having explored the other paths for the past month, she was surprised that she didn't recognize this particular one.

Quinn poised herself to sprint. Glancing at her brother, she said, "Challenge you to a race, how's that? First one to the end wins. Easy as peas."

Jean smiled. "You're on. Just that I'm not sure if you're up to the challenge. Sounds too tough for a girl." He smirked.

Quinn shook her head, the rest of her body tensed, ready to spring. "Not for a knight," she grinned.

"Ready…"

"Set…"

"GO!" They yelled in unison. She sprang from her starting place, legs running as fast as they could carry her. She became a blur of gold and blue, as her blonde hair trailed behind her head. Soon, she was at the entrance of the path. She could hear her brother's heavy breathing, much louder than the controlled pace of hers. If they were hunting, she would have sharply reprimanded Jean for scaring away all the game.

Swinging her arms to give her extra momentum, she ducked under the first group of vines. Her bare feet barely found purchase on the mossy floor, covered with dead leaves and twigs. She leaped over the occasional dead log, and looked out for low tree branches, just at head level, waiting to incapacitate her. Her agile body leaped and ducked, twisted and turned. Behind her, it didn't sound like her brother was doing that well; she heard a thump. _Bet he tripped over that root_, she thought, and sped on.

Some of the ferns caressed her face, leaving a tickling sensation behind. Some were wet with dew, and smacked straight at her like a wet towel. Her hands blindly swiped the ferns away from her face. Strangely, she could still hear her brother crashing through the jungle behind her, leaving a trail of destruction.

And suddenly she was at a clearing. A patch of blue sky shone through the dense foliage, illuminating an area of the green carpet floor. She raised her eyes, and was surrounded by ancient stone statues, at least ten feet tall. Each stone statue was five yards away from each other, arranged in a vaguely circular fashion. And right in the middle, where the illuminated patch was, laid a crystal. A crystal so perfect in its crafting such that it reflected light in all directions. Squinting her eyes, she could make out that the multifaceted crystal was in the shape of an egg. Her feet were inexorably drawn towards the crystal. Everything else, even the imposing stone figures, became insignificant.

When she was three yards away from the crystal, there was a loud crashing noise from behind her, breaking the delicate silence. She involuntarily jumped up in shock.

Jean tried one of his weary smiles. "Hey, sorry about that," he shrugged as he said. "That was one well-deserved win, Q, I tripped over so many …" His voice petered out as he gasped in shock at the beautiful sight in front of him.

"Wow." His jaw slacked, mouth hanging in a loose 'O'. He stood, spellbound by the perfect crystal.

Slowly, he advanced on the illuminated green patch of grass, ending up beside Quinn.

"Is it just me, or is there a dark… moving patch inside it?"

Quinn shrugged. She didn't care much for it, really. She just wanted to watch. _See and not touch._

"We aren't just gonna stand here the whole day, are we?" Jean elbowed her gently in the ribs. To be honest, Quinn, for one, was content standing there watching every prettily gleaming surface.

"Who's the chicken now, huh?" Jean prodded her again. Quinn remained silent. Jean, watching her emotionless face, darted forward, lunging towards the crystal.

Instantly, Quinn knew something was wrong. She could feel it. Yes, it was true she wanted the crystal as much as her brother did, but … something just felt amiss. She reached out a hand to grab her brother's elbow, but he shook free of her grasp. "Let go, Q! I'm just fine," he said, grinning from ear to ear. His eyes were sparkling with excitement, hands outstretched to clasp the crystal firmly between his palms. His mouth opened slightly, perhaps to utter an "I told you so" after he nicked the gem.

Then things came to a head rather rapidly.

Three paces away from the crystal, the forest floor emptied out with a loud snapping noise. In that split instant, Jean's features changed from excitement to shock, then to fear. His eyes widened in sheer terror at the loss of ground beneath his feet. His mouth opened wide, a cry for help hanging between his lips.

But the cry never came.

For a moment, it didn't make sense to Quinn. Was she flying upwards? Just seconds ago, the floor looked solid. How did her brother manage to fall through a hole?

Then came the wave of fear. It crashed into her brain like a tsunami, erasing any logical thoughts and filled with fear for her brother. Her beloved, only brother. The one companion that truly understood her, the one that could read her like an open book. And he was down there, stuck in a pit ten feet down. How was she going to rescue him? A little girl like her felt powerless at that moment. She glanced around, but there was nothing, save a few brittle-looking vines, that could possibly rescue her brother.

She glanced down at the pit. And realized that he didn't need saving anyway.

Her brother's body, broken from the fall, was lying on a bed of the same broken crystal. One particularly lethal-looking shard had pierced through her brother's body, staining it with red. The blood flowed profusely from the fatal wound, pooling around him. In his bloodied hands laid the crystal he tried so hard to obtain.

A ragged smile of triumph hung on Jean's lips. Quinn wanted to scream, but she couldn't. The situation was so twisted. Just ten seconds ago, she was trying to hold back her brother, and in this ten seconds, she found out that her brother was about to die in a minute, and she had no way of saving him. The scream came out of her larynx as a shrill rasp. Her brain was in shock. It was too much for a fragile 14-year old like her to accept the truth in the short time of ten seconds. Her thoughts, swirling inside her brain, became confused and muddy.

A single thought surfaced from her wreck of a mind. How was she going to live life without her brother? It was impossible. Unthinkable. Unimaginable. She had always imagined that they would be crowned knights together, go on daring adventures and quests together. Quinn and Jean, the unstoppable. Work with each other for the rest of their lives. Not have one of the pair get impaled on some pathetic … crystal.

No. It was impossible to live life without him.

Her left foot hung over the pit, right foot just about to join in, when she heard her brother rasp.

"No…" Jean moaned with the last of his strength. Quinn pulled back her foot.

"But… But you promised!" She screamed in frustration, sadness, and fear. Tears streamed down her white cheeks and fell freely down her shirtfront, unchecked.

"I…" His chest heaved, sucking in a dying breath

"I…"

"I believe in you, Quinnie." Jean let out that breath, and suddenly his eyes turned clear. The last sentence hung on his lips.

Gone. He was gone.

On that very spot, she broke down and cried.


End file.
